( רמה כ ז מל ו תשר מה ו ד י ע י ן ( למ מ"ל ןיעידומ ש ל מ כרמ ז מה י עד מל ו ד י ע י ן ו רטל ו ר ט ןיעידומ ע ה ר Spotlight on Global Jihad August 5-11, 2021 Main events of the past week Syria: This week, the downtrend in ISIS’s activity in the various provinces in Syria continued. The main incident of the week was an attack in west Damascus, against a bus carrying members of the Syrian Republican Guard. Nineteen of the bus passengers, including officers, were wounded or killed. The Hurras al-Din Organization (Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria) claimed responsibility for the IED explosion. The Syrian regime described the incident as a "short circuit" that left the bus driver dead and three passengers wounded. Iraq: ISIS’s activity continued in the various provinces, albeit on a relatively small scale. Most of this week's activity was concentrated in the Makhmur region (about 70 km east of Mosul), where ISIS operatives carried out a relatively large number of attacks. A senior commander in the Kurdish forces in Iraq (the Peshmerga) noted that ISIS had reestablished its presence in the Makhmur region, south Kirkuk, and on the outskirts of the Diyala and Mosul provinces. It should be noted that these areas, adjacent to the Kurdish region, suffer from a lack of effective governance by the Iraqi central government. The forces of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS have announced the pullback of one of its units to Kuwait (OTH). Coalition Spokesman Wayne Marotto noted that despite the pullback of the forces, the role of the Coalition forces to fight ISIS alongside other forces in Iraq had not changed. Sinai: This week, ISIS's activity was concentrated in the Rafah region. In one incident, an Egyptian colonel was killed. In a taped message that was leaked, Abu Osama al-Masri, former governor of ISIS’s Sinai Province, says that his men are killing Egyptian soldiers because they support Jews and Christians, adding a quote from the Quran to justify his statement. Africa: ISIS's activity in Africa continues. The main event was ISIS's takeover of two villages in the Congo, on the Congo-Uganda border, after prolonged clashes with the Congolese army. In Mozambique, joint forces of Rwanda and Mozambique managed to regain control of the port city of Mocímboa da Praia, which was taken over by ISIS's 131-21 2 Central Africa Province over a year ago. In Nigeria and Cameroon, ISIS operatives continued to carry out attacks and clash with army forces. Afghanistan: Taliban forces took control of the city of Kunduz, near the Afghanistan- Tajikistan border, and other regions in the country. At present, it is unclear how this will affect ISIS's activity in the region. Anyhow, this week, there was a decrease in the scope of ISIS’s attacks. The battle for hearts and minds: This week, the main article in ISIS’s Al-Naba’ weekly dealt with the international coalitions against ISIS that are being formed in Mozambique and the Congo. The author notes that these coalitions will be defeated because they are weak, and he encourages ISIS operatives to continue on the path of jihad. The Syrian arena Syrian governorates (freeworldmaps.net) The Idlib region Exchanges of artillery fire continued between the Syrian army and the forces supporting it and the rebel forces in the rebel enclave in Idlib. In support of the Syrian army, on August 10, 2021, Russian fighter jets carried out airstrikes in the northwestern region of the enclave (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, August 10, 2021). Al-Hasakah region The American forces reportedly transferred 40 ISIS operatives who had been held in the Thanawiya Prison and another prison in south Hasakah, to the US base in Al-Shadadi. The prisoners reportedly included an expert on making IEDs (Syrian News Agency, August 6, 2021). In this context, it has been reported that last month, at least six men were murdered in the Al-Hawl camp, which is close to Al-Hasakah. The camp, which is run by the Kurdish forces, 131-21 3 is used to hold families of ISIS operatives and is occasionally infiltrated by ISIS squads which murder prisoners who wish to leave the organization (www.kurdistan24.net, August 5, 2021). Deir ez-Zor and Al-Mayadeen region1 In a Global Coalition counterterrorism operation in Diban, about 3 km east of Al-Mayadeen, Abd al-Razzaq al-Jal’ad, an ISIS operative, was arrested. No details were published on his position in ISIS (www.jesrpress.com, August 5, 2021). The desert region (Al-Badia) This week, ISIS’s Al-Naba' weekly reported that on two occasions, ISIS operatives activated IEDs and destroyed two trucks in the Homs desert region. In the first incident, in the Sukhnah Desert on July 25, 2021, six soldiers were wounded. In the second incident, on July 29, 2021, an IED was activated against a Syrian army convoy. The report in Al-Naba' weekly: Right: The truck which was hit first. Left: The second one (Al-Naba' weekly, Telegram, August 5, 2021) On August 7, 2021, two attacks were carried out against Syrian army troops and the forces supporting them. For the time being, ISIS has not claimed responsibility: An IED exploded near a Syrian army roadblock in the Sukhnah Desert, about 120 km southwest of Deir ez-Zor. No casualties were reported (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, August 7, 2021). One of the fighters of the forces supporting the Syrian army was killed by gunfire on the Palmyra-Deir ez-Zor highway (Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, August 7, 2021). Damascus On August 4, 2021, an explosion occurred on a military bus at the entrance to the quarters of the Republican Guard forces in west Damascus. According to sources in the Syrian 1 According to ISIS’s claims of responsibility posted on Telegram 131-21 4 opposition, 19 of the passengers on board the bus, including officers, were killed or wounded. The Syrian regime attempted to suppress the information and presented the incident as a “short circuit” which left the bus driver dead and three passengers wounded (SANA, August 4, 2021; Orient News, August 4, 2021). The Guardians of Religion Organization (Hurras al-Din), the Al-Qaeda branch in Syria, claimed responsibility for blowing up the bus (Enab Baladi, August 6, 2021). According to the organization’s statement, they attacked a bus carrying Republican Guard officers. The attack was carried out in response to Syrian regime attacks against the organization in the Daraa region. In the statement, jihad fighters in Syria were called on “to return to the original path of jihad” as the only way to confront the Syrian regime (Telegram, August 4, 2021). It should be noted that the organization does not usually claim responsibility for carrying out its attacks. The organization’s last claim of responsibility was issued in January 2021, when it was operating in the Al-Raqqah region. Right: The bus going up in flames (Ninar FM, August 4, 2021). Left: The bus which was attacked (SANA, August 4, 2021) The claim of responsibility by the Hurras al-Din Organization (Telegram, August 4, 2021) 131-21 5 The Iraqi arena Provinces of Iraq (Wikipedia) The pullback of the American forces from Iraq The Global Coalition has announced that in light of the decline in the need for the OTH forces (rapid response infantry force deployed by helicopter), the forces have left Iraq and returned to their home base in Kuwait (Al-Sumaria, August 7, 2021). Coalition Spokesman Wayne Marotto noted that despite the pullback of the forces to Kuwait, the role of international coalition forces to fight ISIS alongside other forces in Iraq had not changed (Al-Arabiya, August 9, 2021). Iraqi military sources reported that the Iraqi-American Commission will soon begin work to formulate a plan for the pullback of troops from Iraq, as was agreed in the final round of the strategic dialogue. According to the agreement, a joint committee will be in charge of implementing the agreement, including the formulation of the plan for the pullback of the forces in several phases, with the goal of withdrawing the forces from Iraq by the end of 2021. A military source at the Special Operations Headquarters is expecting the arrival of US military personnel in Iraq in the near future. Operations Headquarters Spokesman Tahsin al-Khafaji said that there were no army camps or sites in Iraq belonging exclusively to the foreign forces and that the forces were stationed at joint Iraqi bases. He noted that Global Coalition forces recently sent $60 million worth of equipment to the Iraqi army and counterterrorism forces and to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces (Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, August 7, 2021). 131-21 6 Summary of ISIS’s activity in Iraq ISIS’s Al-Naba' weekly published an infographic summing up ISIS’s activity in Iraq in the period between July 29 and August 4, 2021. According to the infographic, during that time, ISIS killed and wounded 80 people in Iraq: 19 were Shiites and the rest (61) were Sunnis who had “deviated from Islam” (possibly referring to the Tribal Mobilization fighters). During that time, ISIS carried out 46 attacks in the following forms: 22 detonations of IEDs; 11 gunfire attacks and exchanges of fire; 3 targeted killings; and 5 other attacks. The breakdown of the attacks by province: 11 in the Diyala Province; 11 in the Kirkuk Province; 8 in the Salah al-Din Province; 8 in ISIS’s North Baghdad Province (the southern Salah al-Din Province); 4 in the Al-Anbar Province; and 4 in the Tigris Province, northwest of the Kirkuk Province.